Three creatures could be seen that rainy night at the foot of a cliff in the middle of the Everfree Forest. Two were staring at a spot a few metres in front of them; the dark-coloured Unicorn trembling, not yet fallen to her knees, and the lighter, dainty Pegasus beside her frozen in shock. A little way behind them, the third, her bright pink dulled in the gloom, was on the muddy ground facing away, her body heaving rhythmically.
The storm intensified and a bolt of lightning struck between the wild and unmanaged clouds high above, illuminating against the cliff face for a short second the silhouette of a body pierced on the peak of a jagged rock. It was limp, unmoving and, incredibly, had a Stetson still perfectly attached to the back of its head.
"Can I get you anything?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, thank you Spike. Unless you have a way of hearing from the others."
Spike looked away glumly. His scroll-sending powers were of little use when Twilight didn't have anyone with her able to return a message. The pale Unicorn tucked up in bed nodded sympathetically, and the little dragon went back into the kitchen - to worry-eat on gems, Rarity didn't doubt.
She sank back into her pillow, itching to roll over onto her side but unable to accommodate her back leg, which was set in a thick plaster. It was irresponsible of the others to go without her, she thought to herself. Two magical Unicorns was a far greater advantage than one. If they couldn't have waited for her to heal, they should have just plonked her in a wheelbarrow and have Rainbow Dash whizz her along (no matter how undignified that would have been).
Hours passed, and rain began to fall on the windows. Perhaps she should ask Spike to make tea for when everyone returned; they'd be exhausted, no doubt, whatever the outcome. But just as she was about to call for him, the door swung open and four tired ponies traipsed inside.
"Oh, you poor dears!" Rarity cried. "Spike, fetch some towels from upstairs!"
The baby dragon rushed in, gave a quick, relieved wave to Twilight, who didn't acknowledge it, and hurried up the stairway.
"So I take it we were victorious? It's a ghastly load off my mind, I can tell you. And where's Applejack? She can't want to trudge all the way down to her farm when my house is-"
And she knew. Right from the moment Twilight met her eyes to cut her off, Rarity knew, so that when Fluttershy finally got the words out she just nodded. Such a response seemed a little cold to her in retrospect, but at that moment etiquette was the furthest thing from her mind. Except to note grimly the towels that rolled, unattended, down the stairs.
Pinkamena Diane Pie (she never thought of herself as 'Pinkie') hadn't had a happy thought since the night in the Everfree Forest. Well, that can't have been true. It would be impossible not to have ANY happy thoughts. But no big, delicious, ultra-fantastic happy thought that had broken the barrier of her short memory span and stayed with her, of which she usually had many. Perhaps it was part of the grieving process. She'd never done it before.
Neither had any other pony, she supposed, based on everyone's behaviour over the last few days. No-one seemed to know what to do to comfort each other or deal with their own feelings, so it ended up that no-one talked about it. Everyone just went around being sad and quiet. Neither Fluttershy nor Rarity had left their house (though in fairness, Rarity still couldn't; Spike was still looking after her). Twilight or Rainbow Dash she'd bump into at the market sometimes, where they'd exchanged forced smiles and go their own way, and… no. She wasn't forgetting anyone. There were only five of them now.
No-one had seen any of the Apple family either; they'd been left to grieve privately, so Apple Blossom, Big Macintosh and Granny Smith were all absent from the streets of Ponyville. It was unknown if and when they'd be organising a funeral. Pinkie vaguely wondered if Princesses Celestia or Luna would attend. Applejack had… in the service of saving Equestria, after all.
Pinkie stopped. She'd found herself in the woods; not part of the Forest, but leading out of Ponyville. She'd ended up absently headed toward Sweet Apple Acres, so she turned in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage, resolving to go check on her.
As she made her way, she started to hear an odd whooshing sound. The air was still, so it wasn't the wind in the trees. And yet…
Leaving the path, Pinkie eventually found the source; a fast blue shape was racing repeatedly up and down a long space between trees, which was more like a runway than a clearing. Adjusting her eyes to catch Rainbow Dash's movements, Pinkie saw the Pegasus stop at each end of the field, turn, and run back at full tilt, lifting off the ground a little but not taking flight.
"Hi!" Pinkie called brightly. Dash glanced to the side to catch the noise, but was going so fast that she had to spin her head right round, which put off her balance and she crashed into a tree. Pinkie trotted over, characteristically oblivious to the accidents she caused by suddenly appearing.
"That doesn't look like a very good way to fly." She stopped herself from asking if Rainbow Dash had forgotten how; though talkative, Pinkie was always aware of what she said and whether it would offend anyone, and that was the last thing she ever wanted. Particularly with Rainbow Dash, who was egotistical, therefore sensitive.
"No. I'm just getting some energy out of my system." Dash brushed herself off and sat on her flank under the tree, panting slightly.
"Isn't the best way to do that to fly? You always fly fast, that must use up a lot of energy. Maybe you could clear the clouds, though it's already a sunny day, so maybe you could bring some more clouds in. Oh, then you could bring some rainclouds and make a rainbow! After all, you are Rainbow Da-"
"DON'T-" Rainbow Dash quickly stopped herself mid-shout. "Please don't call me that."
It wasn't the snapping that shocked Pinkie. It was how polite Rainbow Dash had been after she'd checked herself. She'd said please. Pinkie couldn't remember her ever saying please before. Obviously she'd accidentally offended her, so she quickly ran through what she'd babbled and pinpointed a possible suspect.
"...Dash?" She experimented. Rainbow Dash didn't flinch, but kept her eyes lowered. "What's wrong?" Pinkie lay down on her tummy beside her to try and make her friend more comfortable. After she'd allowed a few moments of silence to pass, Dash began to let tears fall.
"Ayjay." She croaked. Pinkie nodded. She wasn't sure why.
"Then what's the problem with your name?"
"I… I haven't flown since… I haven't wanted to. I've felt… so guilty."
"Guilty? It wasn't your fault, it was because of Nightmare. You weren't even there."
"Yes I was!" Rainbow Dash yelled, but not at Pinkie. More tears came, but she didn't sob – it was a deeper sadness. "I'd… Nightmare had thrown me off the mountain, so I'd circled around it for ages trying to find you guys and… I saw everything from above. I saw the cliff crack, I saw her fall and… I dived for her. I dived so fast, but…" She trailed off, it was too hard for her to go on.
"It's okay. You did your best." Pinkie tried to put her hoof on Dash's, but the other pony quickly drew hers back.
"No. I dived for her. And I was about to do a Rainboom, I could feel it. But… I saw that she was too far away. That if I kept going I'd hit the ground too. So I… I… pulled up." Now Dash broke down into gentle sobs, leaning forward over the front legs holding her up.
Pinkie never could remember what went through her head in that next minute or so, whether there was a moment of blame in her heart. If there was, she reconciled it because she lifted herself up and put her front leg over Dash's back.
"You stopped us from losing two friends. That's a good thing."
"But I let her g-go." Dash didn't resist her hug and leant her head against Pinkie's shoulder. "Maybe I could have saved her."
"You're the best flyer I know. You've told me so enough. If your head told you that you couldn't have done it, then you couldn't have done it."
There was no telling whether Dash had accepted her words or not. She just lay there crying against her friend for a long while. Pinkie held back her own tears, ever the one to be strong and support her friends through all problems, the one to laugh and entertain so that everyone got through hardship. The hostess.
I should have been there.
Why wasn't I there?
I could have put up a fight. Made them take me. I'm Rarity for goodness' sake, if I had really wanted to go I would have gone! Even if I couldn't have done anything to change Applejack's fate, I could have at least been there for her. But I still haven't left this stupid bed!
Rarity yelled out in frustration. That only made her throat sore, and Spike had gone home for the night so there was no-one to bring her a drink. She shook her head. It wasn't fair to take out her stress on herself, or on anyone else.
No. There was someone. Nightmare. The force that had inhabited Princess Luna and turned her against her sister and all of Equestria with bitterness. That had tried to live in the hearts of all ponies and turn them against each other.
That had killed her friend Applejack.
Dear, sweet, true, wonderful Applejack.
Rarity threw back her covers. She wasn't going to stay in bed any longer.
It was early the next morning that Rainbow Dash came to Rarity's shop to try and catch her before Spike arrived to dote. After checking through the window to see if she was asleep and seeing the bed empty, Dash opened the door, the bell above it ringing.
"Hello? Rarity? Are you up now? I wanted to talk to you about… my hair. If there's going to be a funeral, I thought my colours might not be appropriate so I thought I should maybe dye it black."
She knew there would be a squeal of disapproval sounding from somewhere in the house. Rarity was always bugging Dash about growing the front of her mane and doing something 'fabulous' with it to do the colours justice. Dash still wasn't sure what 'fabulous' actually meant.
But no sound came.
"Or maybe, you know, shave it all off."
Still nothing. Something was definitely wrong. Dash started to search the house.
"Hi Fluttershy."
"Oh, hello Twilight."
Twilight trotted over to the stall where Fluttershy was picking through types of oat. It was the first time that the quiet Pegasus been in Ponyville for a few days, and she'd forgotten how quickly it was before you met someone you knew in the small town.
"Isn't Spike with you?" Fluttershy asked before either of them could say 'How are you?'
"He's still in bed." Twilight seemed grateful for the skipping of pleasantries. "He's been up late looking after Rarity these last few days, so he needs more sleep."
"Oh dear, is she not getting better?"
"It was a magical wound, so it'll take some time to-"
"GUYS!"
They both turned to see Rainbow Dash whizz up to them.
"Rarity's gone, she's not in her house."
"What?" Twilight frowned. "But her leg- did someone take her?"
"I don't think so, the bed was made."
"Where would she go?" Fluttershy stopped herself imagining the pain Rarity must have gone through forcing herself to walk.
"I think I know." Dash took off down the street, slow enough for the others to follow at a gallop.
Weak. So weak. Nightmare hated being weak – twice in one decade she'd been vanquished and forced to hide away to regain her strength. At least now she could hide away in peace in the ruins of the Moon Castle where she had first been defeated by Twilight and her friends. It was so obvious a hiding place they wouldn't think she'd be so stupid as to stay there.
BAM! The door burst open.
"NIGHTMARE!"
Confound those ponies.
Nightmare drifted up in her cloud form to hang high up by the ceiling over the Unicorn who walked in before she was spotted. In her weakened state, the malignant spirit couldn't identify the creature. She sank down to get a closer look with her dulled senses.
And suddenly she'd been slammed down on the floor with a flick of the Unicorn's glowing horn.
"I've got her!" It cried. Nightmare heard other hooves fast approaching, and with painful effort forced herself into the shape of Nightmare Moon. With her new eyes, she looked up and gave a mocking smile to hide her anger as she recognised the pony holding her down.
"Twilight Sparkle. How pleasant to see you again so soon."
"Where is she?" Twilight growled as the other members of her miniature herd came racing into the room.
"She must have friends." Nightmare widened her smile. "I mean, such good friends who she doesn't tell when she's going on a revenge mission. Although perhaps the fact that she wasn't invited along the first time has something to do with that."
Nightmare's now-solid head was slammed against the floor once again, but this time when her eyes refocused, she saw it was the pink earth pony who was pinning her down.
"You've hurt us enough already by taking away one of our friends, and that's enough for a lifetime. But if you tell me that you've taken another, I promise that these three standing behind me won't even have time to kill you. Now we'll ask again; where is Rarity?"
"I don't know." Nightmare scowled. "I've been alone here for days, no-one's come into the ruins."
They must have trusted that she'd boast about killing another one of their friends if it were true, because they looked to each other, puzzled.
"Maybe she came another way and isn't here yet." The multi-coloured Pegasus suggested. "It must take ages with her leg." Twilight nodded in agreement and looked back down at Nightmare.
"You can find her. Sense her with your magic."
"And why on earth would I help you?"
For her trouble she was kicked across the room, where she dissipated back into her cloud form as she hit the wall. As she drifted away, blind again, she idly wondered where the other Unicorn could be.
Odd tracks were left in the mud behind the pale, slow-moving pony. She'd given up limping, and just let her injured leg drag – the cast protected it from hurting too much as long as she didn't put pressure on it. She wasn't even thinking of the mud she was collecting on either the cast or the rest of her body, as each forced step splashed dirt onto her flank.
It had taken her all night and most of the morning to reach the spot, and she was exhausted. But she knew that the most draining part was to come, and she let herself sit still and breathe for a few minutes. And then she began.
Rarity closed her eyes and focussed like Twilight had taught her to, feeling her horn quiver with magic on her forehead. She felt a grasp on her quarry and let her senses pour through it, examining every part. She paused, but only to gather herself, never a moment's doubt in her plan. She inhaled, screwed up her face, and sent all of her remaining energy through her horn and into the body levitating before her.
Organs repaired themselves and skin healed over tears. Rarity would have cried out with effort and pain if she had any brainpower spare to do so. Her front hooves gave way at one point and she nearly fell, but regained control just before she lost her focus. There was no image in her mind of what she was doing; she probably wouldn't have been able to handle the sight. But she could feel much more vividly every puncture and break being fixed. The body hadn't been moved, just as she'd suspected, no-one being able to bear to. That had left rot in places which she now restored. She felt the pain rising, so quickly pressed on and restarted the heart.
The amount of energy that took was monumental. Every system had to have blood forced back through it after being unused for days. The effort was crippling Rarity, she was sure. And when the blood hit the brain, even with all her energy directed out of herself, Rarity screamed.
The scream kept her going, and as she exhaled through it, more magic was expelled out of her and into her target, sparking its systems into action.
And suddenly, finally, Applejack's eyes opened, blank and pupiless.